Mob mule and toilet girl

Last night was the flash mob; 9 people played rock paper scissors in the middle of Tokyo station. With only nine, it wasn’t much of a mob but it was all over in 2 minutes, so it definitely qualified on the “flash” part.

I had a small role in the game. At 19:32, I dropped off the instructions at Cow #20. There didn’t seem to be too many people there, just three guys hanging around on one corner of the space near the Maru Biru. So I sort of held up the papers a little bit and without breaking stride, walked over to the cow, sat the clipped together slips on the ground near a hoof, and walked away. MJ and I were the only non-Japanese there; I bet it must have confused everyone to see a foreigner with the secret instructions.

MJ got some pictures of the mob; I had my camera but was having too much fun playing to take it out and document.

Competing with the mob fun for most memorable moment of the evening, were two funny toilet incidents after. At an izakaya in Yaesu, MJ fell in love with the toilet paper. “It has stuff written all over it; steal me a roll,” she requested. I didn’t manage a roll, but I did spirit away these two sheets:

Boss, the location of your part has changed, hasn’t it?

As long as it’s for a purpose, we’ll walk for anything (SIGN: a good man)

Definitely odd toilet paper.

My other toilet experience was in a different izakaya (it was a busy night) under the tracks at Yurakucho station. The ladies room is tucked into a tiny space with a low slanted ceiling—less than five feet off the ground at the highest point. I was so distracted by bumping my head that I forgot to lock the door. The woman who opened it moments after I sat down was not more shocked than I was. How do you gracefully exit that situation? I did my best with hastukashii—-atama wo ki otsukete! (embarrassing—watch your head!) as I ducked out.

Posted by kuri at September 27, 2003 06:02 PM